Muswell Hill & Fortis Green Association www.mhfga.org Your Residents’ Association working for the local community since 1948 Exploring our local history January/February 2019 Inside this issue: A Secret History of the Northern Line 2 Notices Very Merry Muswell MHFGA contacts 3 New MHFGA volunteers 4 Pinkham Way Membership Matters 5 Corporate Profiles: Design Studio, Muswell Hill Methodist Lawn Tennis Club 6 Friends of Parkland Walk Wellness Café Winter in Muswell Hill 7 Local Events 8 Arthur Humphreys, Complete Outfitter CPZ starting on 7th January after the formation of London Transport. It was the result of amalgamating the City and South London Railway (C&SLR) and the Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway (CCE&HR or ‘Hampstead Tube’) which ran to Golders Green when it On Thursday 11th October we set a new record attendance of opened in 1907 and was extended to Edgware in the 1920s. over 75 people at our talk on the Northern Line, held at North Bank. Michael treated us to mind-bending facts about former names of Our speaker, Michael Burman, treated us to a fascinating and tube stations. For example, the current Tottenham Court Road at times farcical history of how our favourite tube line has station was actually named ‘Oxford Street’ when it opened in evolved over more than a century. We found out why Muswell 1907, while the station we now know as Goodge Street was Hill station no longer exists, and how the Second World War confusingly named ‘Tottenham Court Road’ when it opened in put a stop to plans to extend the line even further North. the same year. Closer to home, we found that Archway station has changed its name four times, and was originally named The Northern Line had only been formed in 1937, four years Highgate! History of the Muswell Hill Odeon On Thursday 8th November we had the pleasure of welcoming cinema historian Jeremy Buck to deliver his captivating talk on the history of the Muswell Hill Odeon (now Everyman). Jeremy covered everything from the Pathe Newsreel of the opening night on 9th September 1936 right through to the present day rebirth as the Everyman. Some highlights were the photographs of the Athenaeum (now Sainsbury’s) and a detailed analysis of how the interior of the cinema building has changed over time. The Association itself also got a mention, having successfully led the campaign for the cinema building to be given listed status when it was under threat of closure in the 1980s. Jeremy’s book, Cinemas of Haringey (2011) was available for purchase at the event and sold out almost immediately. It can also be borrowed from Wood Green Library or purchased from the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green (or possibly the Muswell Hill Bookshop - you could give it a try!) If you love us, you have to ‘like’ us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MHFGA Visit us on Twitter for regular updates: @theMHFGA Follow us on Instagram for beautiful images of Muswell Hill: @muswellhill.london Visit our website: www.mhfga.org Page 2 Safer Neighbourhood Teams: Members’ Meetings Muswell Hill: 020 8721 2765, Fortis Green: 020 8721 2506, Our meetings are open to the public and are free of Alexandra: 020 8721 2675 charge. They take place at 7.30pm at North Bank, Pages Lane, N10 1PP. Refreshments are served after the talk. The police are urgently in need of residents in Muswell Hill ward to join the Muswell Hill Ward Panel. This committee meets every Our next meetings will be on: few months to discuss local police priorities, trends in local crime and to act as a liaison between local residents and officers. 14th March - tour of Lauderdale House in Highgate Please email Brian Livingston, Chair of the Fortis Green Police 11th April - a talk by Sunshine Garden Centre Ward Panel, ([email protected]) with your telephone 16th May - AGM at 7.45pm at Woodside Square Common number if you are interested in taking part. Please also contact House Brian if you live in another ward and are interested in joining 9th June - a walk around Alexandra Park, led by Julian your local Police Ward Panel. Woodfield If you have a local issue you would like to discuss, the Police Booking details will be announced nearer the time. Contact Point is at Planet Organic on Saturdays from 1-3pm. A Very Merry Muswell On Saturday 1st December the Association took part in the Very Merry Muswell festival in St James’s Square. We took the opportunity to hold another Charity Tombola given the extraordinary success of last year’s endeavours. Committee member Zoe Norfolk organised the event which was very well received by the people who visited our stall. We are delighted to announce that we raised £210 for this year’s MHFGA charity, WAVE, a locally based charity which helps people with learning disabilities integrate into the community. Our tombola prizes were very kindly donated by a wide range of local businesses, almost all of whom are also corporate members. The full list can be found on our website and on our Facebook page. The event culminated with the illumination of the Muswell Hill Christmas Tree, with the switch-on itself conducted by the cast of the Jacksons Lane Christmas Show. George Danker and Zoe Norfolk If you have some time to spare…. …..could you help us with various activities such as attending to flower beds, reporting on local events for the Newsletter, finding speakers for our Members’ Meetings or supporting the committee in other ways? If you are able to help with any of these tasks, please contact our Chairman, John Hajdu (contact details below). Visit our website www.mhfga.org for lots of information about the local area including old photos and John Hajdu’s history of the Association. If you have a photo or news item why not share it with our members on Twitter @theMHFGA or visit www.twitter.com/theMHFGA. We tweet regularly on Association and local news, so please follow and spread the word. And don’t forget our Facebook page www.facebook.com/MHFGA! www.mhfga.org Page 3 Our New Helpers! Alex Vincenti will retire from the position of Membership Secretary at the AGM in May. Until then he is supporting Loretta Mitchell who is taking over this demanding role. Patricia Pearl is the new independent examiner of our accounts. Loretta Mitchell I have lived in Muswell Hill since 1975, first renting a flat My parents moved from above a shop in the Broadway, then moving to a flat in Brighton to Muswell Hill when I Tetherdown, and eventually to my current house in Cranley was 5 months old. I have vivid Gardens about 30 years memories of Muswell Hill in ago. I was secretary of the early 1950s and it really the MHFGA for a short hasn’t changed significantly. time in the 1980s and The Victorian and Edwardian worked on various other architecture still gives a sense projects.. of well-being and permanence. Some of the At that time, the main shops I remember as a child concern of Muswell Hill are still there. residents was the proposed redevelopment We moved to Ringwood of Ally Pally following the Avenue just before my fifth fire. Ideas for the future of birthday. I spent a very happy the Palace ranged from childhood in the area along with my parents, Russ and Nancy leaving it as a ‘Noble Mitchell, and my brother and sister, attending school in Ruin’ to an ambitious Highgate and going to college in Hampstead. I lived in development with a state- Ringwood Avenue until I married at the age of 22. of-the-art swimming pool and a luxury hotel. I served on the Conservation Area My husband, Dr Salim Mahmud, was a doctor who ran an NHS Advisory Committee and helped out with the Association’s Practice in West Hampstead from 1970 to 2012. We brought activities. I stopped my work with the Association to up five children, four girls and a boy. I eventually took on the concentrate on the campaign to keep the Odeon from closing role of Practice Manager and worked with my husband and a and then my attention turned to my career and family. wonderful team of people for many years. Sadly, Salim passed away in 2013. I decided to move from West Hampstead and I worked as a solicitor in Central London until 1998 when I found myself looking at a charming Regency villa on Fortis was appointed a Judge. That second career kept me busy in Green, which I bought, renovated and where I hope to spend courts in Watford, Barnet and finally as a Circuit Judge at the the rest of my life. Central Family Court in Holborn. I retired in June 2018, which is how it came about that I had time to volunteer to help with It has been a very nostalgic and happy experience coming the work of the Association again. I saw the notice in the home to Muswell Hill. I love the area and have the most Newsletter asking for a volunteer to be independent examiner wonderful neighbours. Very luckily my children, who have and put my name forward. been so supportive after the loss of their father, and grandchildren still live in West Hampstead and I am happily Relieved of the pressures of work, I have been enjoying the involved in their lives. Lido at Park Road Pool, going for long walks, and taking photographs. My daughter teaches locally and I spend one I have many interests which keep me very busy.